Unlikely Coincidences

That the world is becoming smaller as we get easier access to travel and can fly anywhere on the globe is well known. This sometimes lead to strange coincidences. In 1990 I chartered a 54 foot sailing boat for me and some friends to sail to a very small and very remote place called Banaba (Ocean Island)almost on the equator and in the middle of the South Pacific. This was one of the Ham radio expeditions that I organised a few times. Banaba is as 12 days sail from Fiji were we started from or can be a 2 day sail if you mange to get to Kiribati Islands. The island now has about 300 inhabitants most of the time but when i was there they were less than a hundred. Mainly there to ensure the country can lay claim on the fishing rights that go with the territory. Since the guano (used as fertilizer) has been dug out, there is little to no other reasons to keep the island financially, than for the fishing rights that go with it. In 1980 the the island was left in a hurry by the Brits and Australians doing the mining.

5 years later in 1995 I was still working with a commercial company and I was installing satellite TV systems on Ships of various nature. Among them was a Norweigan coastguard ship. I flew up to Bodoya in Norway to meet the boat. The boat was in port for supply so the timing was good.

Once on board we started a trip further north while still going in close to the shore. I worked and tested the antenna and late at night went to bed. In the morning when I woke up there was no land in sight anywhere. The idea was to test the system by finding the rough sea! while getting closer to Jan Mayen, the western most Norweigan island in the north sea. After 2 days we saw the island and the tests were found to be just OK. Thus my work was concluded. As we had a helicopter on board I figured they would find away for me to get off the boat. This was not to be the case for the next 5 days though. The helicopter could not fly far enough to get me ashore and they would be heading further up north to inspect the fishing boats in the north sea. A lot of Russian fishing boats were up there. It was kind of strange to see so many boats as we did once up in the helicopter. As I had nothing to do I was allowed to join the crew flying out to the ships. We hovered and lowered down the inspectors to various boats. It was good fun as I love being in helicopters.

We continued sailing north and one day we came very close to Bear Island (Bjoernoya). Being a radio amateur I was of course very interested in that island as it was its own entity and almost impossible to get access to visit under any circumstance.

The helicopter crew asked if I wanted to go ashore and have lunch with the team that normally live on the island and of course I wanted to. So once more we took off with the Lynx helicopter. It is quite an exiting moment when taking off or landing from a small deck on a moving ship. Luckily for me the pilot was the number one instructor they had in the navy in the whole of Norway so I figured I was in good hands. That he loved flying I had already discovered but when we flew in over Bear island it became even more evident. As there is almost no animals nor houses on the island with only about 5 -6 residents there at any time we did not need to abide by any flight restrictions in terms of height. We flew less than 30 meters above the ground and in between the valleys and it was an amazing flight. Low flying and with high speed was a real thrill, talk about roller-coaster ride.


We landed next to the permanent radio/Loran station they have on the island and jumped off. Me and 2 more guys were going to stay there for lunch while the helicopter continued for their work inspecting ships.

We were welcomed with open arms. The guys staying on the island was more than happy to finally have some other people to talk to. As they lived there 6-12 months at a time it could become a bit boring only talking to 5 other guys. We enjoyed the lunch and they showed us around the station and it was very interesting. While chatting with one of the guys about travels we ended up on the topic of South Pacific. I mentioned my backpacking trips and the charters I had done a few years before. The radio operator then says -well I was posted in Banaba in 1975 before heading out on some ships as radio operator. I could not quite believe it. There was never more than 2000 people on Banaba at anyone time (mostly imported Asian workers) and there was only 6 people on Bjoernoya and yet we were two people who had both been to same 2 km island in the pacific and manage to meet up on a just as small remote island in the North Sea of the Atlantic. I am not even able to figure out what the odds of a meeting like that would be but it seems to happen anyway. We continued our journey and when we finally cam close to land we were at the Russian border just above Kirkenes. From there it took me 5 different flights and a whole day to get to Oslo and then another day to get back home to Dalby, Sweden.

Strange as it seems I have two very similar experiences with very unlikely random meetings.

In 1989 I went to a small island called Rotuma in Fiji. To get to the island you have to arrange to live with the locals. There are about 200 people on the island and there are maybe 5 - 10 outside visitors a year on the island. Despite that I manage to have the seat next to a Danish guy (when flying from Copenhagen to Rome) who happened to have been to Rotuma also, 2 years after I was there.

I come from a small village in Sweden called Dalby. In my school there was 1000 students. In 1988 when I flew as a backpacker to Pacific and Australia I went to Frazier Island. There I see a familiar face and found out it was a girl who went to the same school as me just two years apart. She actually was in my little brothers class. That year these was 30,000 travellers from Sweden in Australia inclusive of all package tours. Now what are that chances that among 1000 people there are 2 who would travel to the other side of the world, get onto the same small uninhabited island, on the same day and actually meet.

I am sure there are mathematical formulas that would say it is more common than one might think :-) But it still amazes me.

20 years ago I decided to travel the world

Just sitting here at Sydney airport on my way back home to Dubai after dropping my 10 year old daughter back to Fiji. Yeah I know it sounds a bit crazy but I guess that is my life.

It all started 20 years ago just around this time of the year. I was still in the army in 1987/88 and we were out camping in the snow!

Being a lower officer in the army, with mandatory service, I was out on exercise with my platoon. We were out for 3 weeks in the cold winter. The weather was absolutely appaulling considering we had to camp in tents. It was about 0 degrees daytime so everything melted and we got wet, only to freeze to about -10 C in the night. I still remember about 4 nights when the fireguard either fell asleep or simply had forgotten how to keep the fire going. With the result that we, or rather I, had to restart the fire in the middle of the night. It was 3 weeks of hell for me. I hate cold weather, I hate being cold and wet especially. One of those dark nights again I could not sleep with things flying through my mind.

I was cursing the situation so many times I even forgot the count. Then suddenly one night I just had enough. Not that I could do anything to get out of there but at least I could occupy my mind with something else. For some reason I just said to myself -Next winter I will be as far away from cold Sweden as I possibly can get. I will be on the opposite side of the world for the whole winter. The thought was as simple as that.

From that moment my mind was fully occupied with just that idea. We continued our exercises but I was in another world all together. The idea of being on the other side of the world consumed every moment in the misery :-)

From Sweden that would mean a place like Australia and maybe New Zealand. My mind was already made up and nothing would be able to change me from going. I just started thinking of every detail I would have to plan and get ready to do what I had set out to do. Money, VISA, Itinerary... the list was endless but the more I thought about it the more real it became and the more interesting it became.

After the camping trip we were back in the barracks and got some free time in the evenings. I immediately started to check all sources I had in regards to flights and travel magazines. I found a book called the pacific Handbook which was like a bible on how to travel in the pacific by air or by boat, everything was covered. Much like the Lonely planetbooks do today but they are for my taste missing the original target these days. (later I found anothe ruse for it, being my pillow in some places ;-)

Hmm why only go to Australia and New Zealand I thought after reading a bit. I could by a ticket for about 1000 USD from Copenhagen via Los Angeles to Hawaii, Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, Cook islands, and Tahiti. For an additional 200 USD I could add in Tonga and Samoa islands. There was so many options but it was clear that I could do more than just got to one place. Living costs in pacific could be very cheap if I wanted to so even a budget of 2000 USD for living costs for 6 months would do it.

I told my parents the idea and they simply said. - You must be crazy. Go to pacific backpacking alone and you have never even travelled in Europe let alone in Sweden nor anywhere. hmm for me that seemed such a minor detail that it was dismissed immediately :-)

September 17 , 1998 I flew out as planned. I returned back from my pacific back packing trip in end February 1989. When I flew out of Tahiti towards Los Angeles I was already planning the second trip. A trip which lasted 8 month.

This was the simple start of something that I would never have imagined. On the return back from my trips I just new I would not be able to work and live in Sweden. The world was too interesting to see and with so many countries to visit I just had to find a way to see more of it.

Little did I know then that 10 years later I would find a job were I could get to explore the world as I now keep doing.

My daughter was born in 1997, the same year I joined UN. I am just sitting here at Sydney airport being sad having left her behind in Fiji were she lives with her mom. But at the same time I'm happy. My daughter lives in paradise on Taveuni Island. The island were the dateline goes right through and they see every day first in the world. The same place were the Blue Lagoon film was partially filmed years back. The first time I saw Fiji and Australia is exactly 20 years ago. Since then I have flown numerous times around the globe. I have had the top frequent flyer cards with Emirates 5 years in a row, KLM another 5, Sabena another 5 years and even SAS Eurobonus another 3 years. Looking at the miles I have flown it is way above a Million miles. I have seen paradise places, been in hell on earth and everything between during the 20 years that has followed that initial Backpacking trip to Pacific.

Above is a map that shows the flight paths I have taken in red and either boat or car ride in blue.

People say you are getting old when you start looking back at memories. Maybe it is but for me it rather feels like there has been so little time to actually really think about what I have seen and done over the years. The few times I can relax and actually think back it takes time to just even try sort the mind out.

I just got another mail from my boss. He wants me to go to West Africa to investigate a potential place for us to open up a new office. This year I also have to move out of Dubai as we normally change posting every 4 years and I have overstayed almost two years. Can only wonder, were will I go this time and what part of the world can I then explore further.

Been there, done that!

That was the print on a T-shirt I bought in Rarotonga, South Cook islands in 1989. I had just been to my 10th country in South pacific at that time. Now I have added a few more countries. This is just a map of places I have been to. Marked dark brown are countries and the green spots are small entities. Click on the map to see more details.

So many countries and so little time ;-) As you can see I am kind of addicted to travelling.


Shanghai last week.


My passport


My official passport